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In the Kurt Warner years, a fullback wasn’t featured much of the time on offense, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t used. (I have to say, I had a soft spot in my heart for old I-45 a couple years ago — Terrelle Smith). Smith was gone in 2009, opening the spot for another veteran Dan Kreider. Krieder too is gone and the Cards are searching for his replacement.

They may have added him while Kreider was still on the roster. The team signed Nehemiah Broughton in January off the practice squad of the New York Giants, right after the regular season ended but while the Cards were still practicing (and would be for another two weeks). That was good enough to convince the Cards to keep him around.

“It’s a position that is hard to find guys,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “Nehemiah has good size (at 6-foot, 255 pounds) and is very athletic. He came in and worked hard for us. I am excited to see how he develops because obviously, it’s a position where we need someone to do it. You are looking for someone to step up and he’s got a little bit of a leg up because of the work he did with us last season.”

Right now, fullback is one of the positions difficult to evaluate. That spot hits, and no one is hitting in shorts. Whisenhunt said the goal-line drills in Flagstaff are one of the proving grounds for those players. “I would like to see what happens in games, what happens in training camp when the pads go on,” Whisenhunt said

Broughton took almost all the reps in minicamp because Reagan Maui’a was hurt. Afterward, the Cards also brought in Charles Ali, who had been with the Browns most recently. The Cardinals figure to need a quality fullback, given the retirement of Kurt Warner and the assumed increase in the running game.

“I just want to play football and make this ballclub,” Broughton said. “Coaches make those decisions. … But I am very confident in my abilities.”

I’m not sure who he is, but “AdamJT13″ has had a blog the past few years that has predicted the compensatory picks in the NFL draft — the extra picks handed out to teams when they lose more productive free agents the previous year then they gain — that’s been pretty right on.

Here were his thoughts on the Cardinals’ situation: “The Cardinals could get a third- or fourth-round pick, or they could get nothing. They lost one player who definitely will qualify and signed one player who definitely will qualify. The question is whether Terrelle Smith will count as a player lost and whether Jason Wright will count as a player signed. At this point, I would project that both of them will qualify based on their contract values, leaving the Cardinals with no comp picks. If Wright qualifies and Smith doesn’t, they wouldn’t get a comp pick, either. But if Smith qualifies and Wright doesn’t, the Cardinals would get a third- or fourth-round pick as compensation for losing Antonio Smith.”

“Adam” breaks down the whole league. It’s always been a kind of mystery how the NFL doles out the extra picks — it’s a formula “Adam” seems to have cracked — but obviously, to get an extra third- or fourth-round pick would be huge. That said, Wright played with the Cardinals all season and was important on special teams while Smith was cut by the Lions before they played the Cards. I don’t know the formula, but I don’t see how Smith would qualify and Wright wouldn’t, thus giving the Cards a bonus pick.